This application relates to motion furniture and more particularly to recliner chairs.
Most conventional reclining chairs presently available that have mechanisms which enable a chair to move between upright and fully reclined positions, have a body support that includes a back rest, seat and leg rest that move as an assembly about a fixed or movable pivot. Most commonly those chairs that employ a movable pivot include either a complex and expensive mechanical linkage or a track system that moves the pivot with respect to the base of the chair as the chair occupant, by means of pressure against the back rest, reclines the chair or by means of pressure on the leg rest moves the chair to the upright position. Those chairs that have fixed pivots have limited motion between the extreme positions and most do not allow the body support to provide a zero gravity orientation of the occupant""s body even when the chair is fully reclined. Furthermore, most conventional recliners do not move in a forward direction a sufficient distance to bring the seat to substantially a horizontal plane and therefore those recliners are somewhat difficult to alight from particularly for aged or handicapped persons.
Other conventional recliners that enable the body support to move to a zero gravity reclined position are not as comfortable in that position as they could be for the chair occupant when he/she attempts to watch television or read. The problem is principally the result of the head rests of the recliners being disposed at a fixed angle with respect to the major portion for the back rest and being oriented too far back for the occupant to see over his/her legs to view a television screen unless the screen is mounted in an elevated position such as a bookcase well above table top height. Such chairs are also not conducive to conversation for the occupant with another sitting in the room generally in front of the recliner.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved recliner.
In one illustrated embodiment of the present invention, a recliner is provided with a cam mechanism that enables the chair to move between the front and rearmost positions of the body support in a rocking-like action and provides a longer motion for the body support so that it can achieve a fully reclined position wherein the body of the occupant is in a zero gravity position and wherein the seat of the body support is substantially horizontal when the chair is in an upright position so that the chair occupant can alight from the chair without difficulty.
In another illustrative embodiment of the invention, the chair has a brake that forms part of the cam mechanism so as to enable the chair to be locked in any position between the fully reclined and fully upright positions provided by the cam.
In another illustrative embodiment of the invention, the leg rest is pivotally connected to the body support and continually moves from a stored position underneath the front edge of the seat when the chair is upright to an elevated position wherein it is at an angle of approximately 130xc2x0 to the seat when the seat is filly reclined so as to elevate the lower legs of the occupant above the heart. The transition of the leg rest from the stored position to the elevated position is smooth and continuous as the chair moves between the upright and fully reclined positions.